An October Surprise

Political pundits have been warning about an October surprise that could affect the outcome of the presidential election. But this year's October surprise may have been the 9/11 murder of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, along with three other Americans, and President Obama's deceitful, cowardly response.

The fallout is the collapse of the false narrative that the assassination of bin Laden brought finality to Muslim threats, the proof of the failure of President Obama's Middle East policy, and the cover-up. A cover-up is a bad act or false statement followed by an effort to conceal or mislead public knowledge.

Obama got away with his war on Libya without congressional approval because no Americans were killed. Now four Americans have been killed.

The 9/11 attack in Benghazi, Libya was a preplanned, calculated, organized, military-style assault on U.S. territory and personnel. But the Obama administration persisted for two weeks in spinning the fairy tale that it was just the spontaneous outburst of a mob angry about an anti-Muslim video.

On Sept. 16, the Obama administration sent U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice onto five Sunday TV programs to redundantly present the party line that the torching of the consulate and murder of the U.S. Ambassador were merely an angry mob reaction to an anti-Islam video made in the U.S. Rice called the event "spontaneous, not a premeditated response" that seemed "to have been hijacked" by "extremists who came with heavier weapons."

White House spokesman Jay Carney insisted on Sept. 14 that the attack was all about an anti-Muslim video, saying, "We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack." He spent eight days denying the obvious before he admitted that the label of terrorism was "self-evident."

When Obama spoke to the United Nations on Sept. 25, he announced, "the vision we will support." Expressing "outrage" at the anti-Islam video (which he mentioned six times), but not at the terrorists or violent enemies of the United States, Obama proclaimed that, "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam."

In an emotional pitch to the U.N., Obama announced that it's the world's duty to condemn the video. Obama and Administration spokesmen almost sounded like they were empathizing with the rioters, and that it must be our fault for allowing a video to be shown that hurt the rioter's feelings.

Mitt Romney challenged Obama on the Libyan attack in the second presidential debate on Oct. 16. Obama responded by claiming he had called it a "terror" event the day after it happened, after which moderator Candy Crowley showed her bias by immediately backing up his statement.